Harvesting systems, also known as combines include a crop gathering portion that gathers the crop material and separates it from the ground. In the threshing section the desired grain is threshed from the material gathered. The threshing system includes what are known as concaves that are positioned proximate to a moving usually somewhat cylindrical rotor. The concaves include holes through which the grain passes during the threshing session. The grain is then conveyed for further processing and temporary storage within the harvesting system.
During the harvesting operation the feed rate of crop material into the threshing section of the harvester is highly variable. This is caused both by operator selections of such things as the ground speed but also the feed variability due to variation in the crop density and presence of weeds. This variable feed rate presents a problem for the harvesting machine settings as well as the component life of the concaves and other threshing devices.
When a harvester is set up for a specific crop, that setting is fine tuned for a particular throughput of the machine. This particular throughput is selected to work best for a specific throughput of the machine. However, the actual throughputs of the machine will vary significantly from the ideal throughput. When the harvester is operating with the selected setting it is not optimized when not operating at that specific throughput for which the setting was designed. This results in less than optimum performance which is expressed in increased losses, grain damage, excess strain on the components and wear on the threshing concaves and other components therein. Further if the feed rate variation occurs at a rate faster than which the operator can react, such as slug feeding, the threshing section undergoes extreme stress. This stress leads to component failure of the mechanical systems. The mechanical components as a result are designed to take the highest possible loads even though machines will typically not see these loads under normal operation and some machines will never see these loads.
What is needed in the art is an adaptive and effective threshing control system for use in a harvester.